94 



JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



Vice-President Herrick: If there is no further discussion, we will 

 proceed with the program. President H. T. Fernald resumes the 

 Chair. 



President H. T. Fernald: The next paper on the program will 

 be read by E. P. Felt. 



FUMIGATION FOR THE BOX LEAF MINER 



By E, P. Felt, Albany, N. Y. 



The Box leaf miner, Monarthropalpus huxi Lab., has become well 

 established on Long Island and is seriously injuring ornamental Box 

 hedges. The badly infested plants drop many of their leaves and soon 

 become very scraggy and unsightly. The conditions are such that a 

 considerable expenditure would be justified for control work in many 

 instances, and a series of experiments were therefore started to ascer- 

 tain the possibility of destroying the Dipterous maggots Tvdthin the 

 mines, since direct control methods against the midges or methods of 

 preventing oviposition were not specialh^ promising. The adults fly 

 the latter part of May and there appears to be but one generation 

 annuall3^ 



A series of preliminar}- tests were made with twigs of Box kept in 

 vials and exposed to the action of various gases in ordinary two-quart 

 fruit jars. Under these conditions fumigation with 5, 10, 15 and 20 

 drops of carbon bisulfid for twenty-four hours resulted in the maggots 

 being pronounced dead Tsdthin three daj/s without, so far as could be 

 observed, appreciable injury to the foliage. The time was cut do^Ti 

 to five hours, 15 drops of carbon bisulfid were used and the larvae were 

 apparently all killed and the foliage uninjured; 30 drops were used 

 ^dth an exposure of three and one-half hours with similar results. 



Two teaspoonfuls of carbon bisulfid to a ten-quart bell jar were used 

 for the fumigation of entire plants, the larvae being killed after a two- 

 hour exposure, while a one-hour treatment with one and one-half tea- 

 spoonfuls of the insecticide did not destroy the maggots. We are of 

 the opinion that one teaspoonful to five quarts of space for a period of 

 at least one hour, we prefer at present to extend the time to two hours, 

 will kill the larvae v^dthout injury to the plant. 



Similar tests were conducted with carbon tetrachloride, and while 

 the maggots were affected, the gas was not nearly so effectual, and 

 after a period of twenty-four or forty-eight hours the larvae were active 

 and apparently normal. There was no appreciable injury to the 

 foliage. 



The most interesting tests were with C. P. ammonia. It was used 



